Dos Santos Wants Crack at Interim Belt While Velasquez Mends

Outside of Cain
Velasquez himself, no one was more impacted by the news of his
shoulder injury than the No. 1 for his UFC heavyweight
championship.

Deep in training for an anticipated matchup with Velasquez,
possibly at UFC 129 in
Toronto, Junior dos
Santos will instead have to wait until late summer for a crack
at the champion. While he would welcome the chance to face
Velasquez at UFC “Rio” in
Brazil in August, dos Santos made clear his desire to fight for an
interim title while the American Kickboxing Academy standout heals
from his injury.

“Of course, it would be amazing to face Velasquez at UFC ‘Rio’ in
August, but I cannot stay away from the Octagon for a year just
waiting for him to recover,” dos Santos told Sherdog.com. “I really
think that the fairest thing to do would be for [UFC President]
Dana [White] to give me the opportunity to fight for an interim
belt. I’m 100 percent focused on getting this belt.”

Velasquez captured the title in a rousing first-round technical
knockout against former World Wrestling Entertainment superstar
Brock
Lesnar at UFC
121 in October. Dos Santos was understandably disappointed when
word of the undefeated champion’s injury reached his ear.

“This is the worst news I could have,” dos Santos said.

Dos Santos, on a seven-fight winning streak, has not competed since
he earned a unanimous decision over “The Ultimate Fighter” Season
10 winner Roy Nelson at
UFC
117 in August. Nearly five months later, he finds himself
without an opponent and uncertain as to what the immediate future
holds for him.

“I’m in the best moment of my career, training hard and working so
hard to reach the fight of my life, and, suddenly, it’s postponed
eight months. It’s definitely not fair,” he said. “I’m already five
months away from fighting. I can’t wait eight months.”

The 26-year-old Brazilian hopes another opportunity will present
itself in the meantime.

“Fighting is my life, not only because I love to do that but
because I need to fight for a living,” dos Santos said. “I still
don’t make money like the other top guys, so I really need to
work.”

In the interim, dos Santos plans to travel to Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, to help train UFC middleweight king Anderson
Silva for his scheduled title defense against Vitor Belfort
at UFC
126 in February. He has trained with both men in the past and
provided some insight into the Silva-Belfort showdown.

“I’ve already trained with both and can predict that it will be an
amazing fight,” dos Santos said. “Vitor is more explosive and open,
while Anderson is more intelligent and brings the opponent into his
game. I would say that it’s 60 percent for Anderson and 40 percent
for Belfort.”